Peter H. Christensen
Berthold Leibinger Fellow at the American Academy Berlin
The Fellowship Program, funded by the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung since 2006, is at the heart of the work of the American Academy in Berlin. It enables fellows from the fields of science, art and politics to spend a semester working on academic and artistic projects in Berlin. Peter H. Christensen is the Berthold Leibinger Fellow for this semester.
About the person
The fall 2024 Berthold Leibinger Fellow is Peter H. Christensen, Arthur Satz Professor of Humanities at the University of Rochester, Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Director of the Humanities Center. He is considered one of the leading experts on the global history of architecture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As part of his fellowship, he will devote himself to his fourth book project "Living with Dignity" (working title), in which he wants to show how the built environment can contribute to giving people dignity or not. Based on findings from philosophy, law, economics and sociology, he will examine when the built environment favors a dignified life and when it stands in the way of this. His aim is to approach an architectural practice that contributes to a just society and, particularly in the context of global climate change, to make it clear that the values of human life and the environment do not have to be in conflict with each other.